ATM inventor faces challenge to title

The man credited with the invention of the cash machine faced a challenge to his title today.

John Shepherd-Barron, 79, told earlier this month how he came up with the idea of the auto-teller in the early 1960s after becoming frustrated at not being able to access his money at weekends.

But today another man, Jim Goodfellow, claimed he was the true inventor behind the Automated Teller Machine (ATM).

In 1967, as managing director of De La Rue Instruments, he installed the world’s first ATM at Barclays Bank in Enfield, north London.

But now Mr Goodfellow, 67, claims he came up with the concept of a personal identification number, or PIN, to be typed into a keypad to retrieve money.

He was an engineer in his 20s working for Glasgow company Kelvin Hughes when he was tasked with finding a way for customers to withdraw money from the bank after the end of Saturday opening.

Mr Goodfellow, who lives near Glasgow, said his patent application was submitted in May 1966 – the year before the Barclays ATM appeared.

When asked about Mr Goodfellow’s claim, Mr Shepherd-Barron said: “I’ve never heard of him.”

He added: “I’ve never really thought about being the inventor of the ATM but I built the first one, put it in and made it work so I would say that is invention.”

His machine, the De La Rue Automatic Cash System, took in cheques impregnated with Carbon 14 which were bought in advance from a bank teller and exchanged them for cash.

The technology meant each cheque was chemically coded to identify customers so money could be taken from the correct bank account.

Mr Shepherd-Barron’s invention was not patented because of fears the publicised details of the technology could lead to the cheques being forged.

But he did claim “prior art” for the dispenser when it became public knowledge and said he had still to see evidence that he had not invented the first cash machine.

Mr Goodfellow said: “This guy has never applied for a patent and I can’t see how you can be an inventor without one.”

Mr Shepherd-Barron said he did not want to make a fuss about his work.

He explained: “It was all down to a documentary made by the Discovery Channel. They went to great lengths to try and find out who invented the ATM. There were claims from America that it had been invented there but in the end they concluded it was me.”